Top News StoriesIncreasing Your Focus on SharePoint Productivity (AIIM)I was reading Daniel Antion's post entitled Make SharePoint Simple, which made me think about my own transition into the topic of SharePoint productivity this past year. In his article, Dan shares some experience he's had recently with customers and students who are beginning to use SharePoint, and the feedback he has received consistently is that "SharePoint is too complicated."

SharePoint 2013: Communication and Internal Public Relations Plan (CMSWire)Ever roll out a SharePoint implementation to be hit with a bombardment of requests for features and configurations? It's important to nip this in the bud with a communication and internal public relations strategy to steer the conversation and SharePoint roadmap in the right direction.

Yammer has 7 Million Users as SharePoint Integration Continues (CITEWorld)The Microsoft acquisition has been good for Yammer's sales, which nearly tripled from last year. But the rate of user growth has actually slowed a bit since last year. Microsoft reported some new Yammer statistics this morning. Here's a breakdown:

Office 2013 Sentenced to Death by Licensing (NetworkWorld)I've documented a few times how I feel Microsoft is attempting to control end-user behavior – from killing the Start button in Windows 8 to blocking used games from working on the Xbox 360 successor – and from what I've read about the end-user license agreement (EULA) for Office 2013, the trend is continuing. The retail license agreement for Office 2013 locks it to the PC on which you install it forever. If you buy a new PC, you can't reinstall Office 2013. The same applies when reinstalling Windows. If you have to reinstall Windows for whatever reason, that Office 2013 DVD is now a drink coaster.

Windows Azure Restored Following Global Outage from Expired SSL Certificate (RedmondMag)Microsoft’s Windows Azure storage was back online Saturday after an expired SSL certificate left customers unable to access their data. The cloud service went down Friday afternoon when the SSL certificate expired and remained unavailable until Saturday morning. The worldwide outage affected HTTPS traffic accessing storage, though did not impact less secure HTTP traffic, the company confirmed on the Windows Azure Dashboard.

Microsoft's 'Blue' Wave is Coming to More Than Just Windows (ZDNet)As we've known for a few months, the Windows client team at Microsoft is working on its first "feature-pack" update for Windows 8, supposedly due this summer/fall, which is codenamed "Blue." But it turns out Blue isn't a Windows thing only, according to one very accurate tipster of mine who doesn't want to be identified.

Mobile World Congress: Will the Windows Ecosystem be Relevant in Barcelona? (PCWorld)It’s still an iPhone and Android world, but at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next Monday, expect Microsoft’s Windows and Windows Phone platforms to show some intriguing signs of life. There won’t be a lot of huge phone and tablet announcements at the show, and Microsoft’s own presence will be dialed back compared to previous years. Nonetheless, we might see some interesting new developments—especially if key rumors pan out.

Around the BlogosphereHow Do I Gain SharePoint Experience and Land a SharePoint Related Job? (Asif's SharePoint Blog)The point of this post is to offer you thoughts on how you can gain SharePoint experience and eventually land a SharePoint related job hopefully. This post does not dive into gaining SharePoint knowledge. Check out the other post on SharePoint resources on the web for ideas on learning SharePoint online.

Exploring SharePoint 2013 Part 6.3 : BCS – Support for Apps (Sticky Glue)SharePoint 2013 introduces apps for SharePoint. By using apps for SharePoint, you can add functionality to a SharePoint site by using the self-contained app for SharePoint. When installed, apps for SharePoint do not make any changes to the underlying code on the computer that is running SharePoint Server. Therefore, each app for SharePoint is isolated from the rest of the system. Because apps for SharePoint contain all the resources that they need to function, they are very safe to use and also can be uninstalled cleanly. This post focuses on Business Connectivity Services support for apps for SharePoint. Business Connectivity Services supports apps for SharePoint in two ways. First, BCS models can be scoped to apps for SharePoint. Second, connection information is defined and stored separately from the app-scoped BCS model in BCS connections.

Deploying a Custom 'Composed Look' in SharePoint 2013 (SharePointDevWiki)There are two ways to deploy your custom composed look. Via XML / Elements file – the declarative way, or via feature receiver / C# the imperative way. This article will cover both methods, it’s up to you to ultimately decide which way you prefer. First I will explain how to put together the Visual Studio 2012 project with the assets for the composed look. If you already know how to deploy these assets or they already exist in SharePoint skip down to the bottom.

Easier Field-Level Security in SharePoint 2010 / 2007 (EndUserSharePoint)Field-level security in SharePoint 2007 or 2010 is supposed to be difficult without iffy hacks or custom add-ons. Say, for instance, you want a large group to see a contact list, but only a select few to see home phone numbers. There is no built-in way to restrict access to the home phone number field.

How Baked is it? SharePoint 2013 Hotfix Regression and Other Thoughts (SharePoint Joel's SharePoint Land)I've been following the recent post by Todd Klindt, Ali Salih, Jason Himmelstein, and Trevor Seward where he and a few PFEs confirmed a regression in a December update or hotfix KB2752058. This bug breaks the function of creating self-service my sites. Apparently your users can still use the normal self-service creation.

No Metadata? No Problem! Custom Entity Extraction in SharePoint 2013 (Dot Net Mafia)Every organization wants better search results. However, few have actually spent the time to create file plans, content types, and managed properties to make it happen. SharePoint 2013 has a feature called entity extraction though that can actually infer values by comparing what it finds in the body of the document to a dictionary. This feature is Entity Extraction. If you are familiar with FAST Search for SharePoint or FAST ESP, you know that entity extraction is nothing new. What it does is gives you the power to infer the values of managed properties in search without having metadata in your site columns. FS4SP and SharePoint 2013 come with an extraction dictionaries for company names out-of-the-box. This means when it crawls it will search the contents of the body of your documents and if it recognizes any companies it knows, you can then search and refine on it. However, the true value comes when you create your own. SharePoint 2013 makes it really easy to create these custom dictionaries.

Around Bamboo NationCreate Web Applications that Use Classic Mode Authentication in SharePoint 2013 with Windows PowerShell (SharePoint 2013)In SharePoint 2013, you can only configure claims-based authentication when you manage Web applications in the Central Administration page. This is because claims-based authentication is the default and preferred method of user authentication, and is required to take advantage of server-to-server authentication and app authentication. If you would like to create a Web application with classic mode authentication, you can do this using Windows PowerShell cmdlets. In this article, we will walk you through the process of creating Web applications that use classic mode authentication in SharePoint 2013 with Windows PowerShell.

Time Tracking and Management is New and Improved with Version 1.6! (The Bamboo Team Blog)Your favorite SharePoint tool for tracking, managing, and reporting time spent on projects has been updated with some brand-new features with Bamboo's latest release of Time Tracking and Management for SharePoint 2010. After you've successfully logged-in and created your timesheet site, you can start taking advantage of all the benefits that Time Tracking and Management 1.6 has to offer!

SharePoint Job Listings*Specialist SharePoint Services - GermanyAs SharePoint becomes more and more important for the entire adidas Group, our employees are using the Document Management tool to collaborate with each other in a global workspace. Intranet Projects based on SharePoint are becoming more and more important for our business, not to mention the different Marketing Applications. You, as SharePoint Services Specialist, will be responsible for the entire SharePoint Infrastructure, defining Policies and Standards for the entire environment. You will also be involved in evaluating new tools and technologies within the adidas Group.

SharePoint Developer - Mid Level - Washington, D.C.The candidate will support the development and enhancements of projects using Microsoft technologies. This position works within an integrated team environment to analyze, design, develop, test, and debug cutting edge web-based solutions for agency customers. Each project will involve technical skills ranging from SharePoint deployment and configuration, extending SharePoint APIs, and the development of custom web parts.

Microsoft UpdatesEpisode 100 - Introduction to the Windows Azure Service Bus Notification Hubs (Cloud 9)Recently we announced a new preview feature Windows Azure Service Bus Notification Hubs. In this episode Nick Harris and Nate Totten are joined by Elio Damaggio Program Manager II on Windows Azure Service Bus who provides a great overview, and demo of, Notification Hubs and their use from Windows Store and iOS applications.

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About Chris Dooley

Chris brings more than eight years of marketing experience to his position, with a strong focus on social media marketing stemming from his time of employment with America Online prior to Bamboo Solutions. During his time with AOL as a Senior Program Manager, Chris was responsible for creating the advertising processes for AOL Messaging and Social Media and co- founded AOL’s ComicsAlliance. In his role as Content and Event
Manager for Bamboo Solutions, he continues to carry out his extensive knowledge of social media marketing by establishing the need for the company’s products and services worldwide through emphasizing and initiating global marketing efforts. Chris studied Programming at Georgia Perimeter College.